So the way the weather was last month, I decided it would be better to do something more productive than dream of snorkeling and wearing flip flops. I went out and purchased a brand new new-generation pair of cross country skis. The second pair in my life.

With my first pair of skis, from 1982, the "boots" were made of canvas and looked like cheap sneakers. My feet froze in the first five minutes. And the bindings only worked sometimes. I still remember one freezing January night in Wappingers Falls trying to get out of them for almost an hour. I finally took my foot out of the ski "boot" and walked through the snow and up three flights of stairs in my socks.

My new skis have real boots. They are bright silver, padded with something amazing, and incredibly warm. And the bindings always work.

These advances in technology reminded me of today's new IBM System x server announcement. The new Intel Xeon 5600-based systems deliver performance, energy efficiency, and increased consolidation opportunities. Outstanding performance can be seen across a wide portfolio of industry standard benchmarks including SPECjbb2005, SPECpower_ssj2008 and SPEC CPU2006. In fact, today IBM posted the first SPECpower benchmark score of more than 3,000 overall
ssj_ops/watt.(1)

These new systems enable users to recoup acquisition costs in a very short amount of time. I figure that with all the snow we've had this year and all the skiing I've subsequently been doing, I've certainly done the same.

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(1) IBM System x iDataPlex™ dx360 M3 server Performance to Power Ratio of 3,038 overall ssj_ops/watt on the
SPECpower_ssj2008 benchmark (dx360 M3 was configured with the Intel® Xeon® Processor X5670 (2.93GHz with 256KB L2 cache
per core and 12MB L3 cache per processor—2 chips/12 cores/6 cores per chip), 12GB of memory, one
50GB solid state drive, and IBM J9 Java 6 (using a 1500MB heap), and Microsoft® Windows® Server
2008 R2 Datacenter Edition. Result current as of March 16, 2010, and has been submitted to SPEC® for review. Upon
successful review, the result will be posted at www.spec.org. View all published results at
www.spec.org/power_ssj2008/results/power_ssj2008.html.

There is currently a tuna shortage in Japan and sushi is being made from horse. Which may make some people think long and hard about buying this product.

One of Sun's recent blog entries about their products highlights the T2000 "Try and Buy" program. This program "allows customer to see the same world record performance and other advantages of the Sun Fire T2000 as Sun shows in benchmarks." Let's take a closer look at what the T2000 benchmarks really show . . .

Even the IBM p5-550Q result from 2005 surpasses the Sun T2000 in Lotus NotesBench D7 R6iNotes. Sun's T2000 result has 1.5 times worse price/performance and achieves only 5.5% more performance with double the cores and 2.6 times more memory than the IBM System x3650. The IBM p5-560Q holds the #1 position in this benchmark. (2)

When is an industry standard benchmark truly an industry standard benchmark ?

Based on an "industry standard benchmark," HP announced yesterday that the new HP EliteBook 6930p delivered up to 24 hours of battery runtime. Don't get me wrong. I'm all for more battery time. I mean, saying you're not for more battery time is like saying you don't like ice cream or puppies.

But can we see the data please ? I want numbers and comparisons and links. The whole point is to be able to compare the result with others in order to assist in making a decision.

Yesterday, IBM published two outstanding industry standard benchmark results: An SAP SD 2-tier result on the IBM System x3950 using DB2 and IBM System Storage as well as a SPECjbb2005 score on the IBM System x3650.

The HP battery announcement proudly states that one can now travel "as a passenger" from Maine to Florida using the notebook the entire way. I guess we should be glad they didn't benchmark it with the driver.

************************************************Sources: http://www.spec.org, http://www.sap.com/solutions/benchmark.Results current as of 9/9/08.

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